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Thompson's (Mostly) Polite Interview

Posted by Zonk on from the so-close dept.

Pluvius writes "For the past few weeks, gaming website Netjak has corresponded with infamous anti-video-game lawyer Jack Thompson in reference to his well-publicized proposal to donate money to a charity if someone created a violent game in which a grieving father murdered members of the video-game industry. This has culminated in an interview in which the unusually cordial attorney gives surprisingly viable reasons for not following through on his donation after such a game was created. Unfortunately, Thompson doesn't quite make it to the end of the interview without taking at least one cheap shot towards gamers: '[P]ut down the controller and get a life. Video gaming is an escapist activity and you're being exploited by these companies. It's not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It's a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside.'"

1 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Okay, that's actually coherent... by david.given · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...but what it really shows is that he's drastically misinformed. He doesn't know about games, he doesn't know about game technology, he doesn't know about game culture.

    For example, his comment about a game needing to be written 'by a company'. He says that anyone can knock something up in a garage. Well, Darwinia was one of the best games to come out last year and was knocked up in a garage; Counterstrike started life as a purely amateur project. By his logic, neither of these are real games.

    I think Thompson's fundamental issue is that when he looks at something, he sees what he expects to see, not what he actually looks at. From what little information I can find about Bully, it's the exact opposite of what he says it is --- it's all about standing up to the bullies and defeating them. But he wants it to be evil, so that's what he sees...

    Actually, I suspect he should see a psychiatrist, not because there's anything wrong now, but because this might blow up into something more serious later. He may also have borderline paranoid tendencies. The way he's being harrassed by PA and Slashdot weenies probably isn't helping, either.